the Brussels Adventure: 9/19/10

Sunday morning we rose bright and early, ate an excellent breakfast at the hotel (typical German breakfast is amazing bread, cold cuts, chesses, yogurt, granola, eggs,) and headed to Austria. We drive along the Rhine River for the first part of our drive and passed several more castles, but decided against stopped to tour them because of Isaiah’s napping. The drive to Austria was a long stretch (4 hrs), but the drive was incredible! Once we hit the mountains, I was in awe- Ben had to pick my jaw up off the floor. It was a cloudy day, but that just added to the majesty of it all. Huge peaks, shrouded mysteriously in clouds moments before, would leap into our view as the sun broke through. Ben got pretty sick of the whoosh of air that happened every time I rolled down the window to take a picture. We arrived at our hotel in Ruette, Austria a little after 2pm, but our hotel was completely dark and locked. We waited around for a bit, but no one seemed to be coming, so we decided to continue with our activities and head back to the hotel later. So, off we went to find the Ehrenberg ruins. In Rick Steves words, “If Neuschwanstein was the medieval castle dream, Ehrenberg is the medieval castle reality” i.e. ruins. The cluster of 4 castles once made up the largest fort in Tirol (the part of Austria that we visited). They were built in the 13^th century to defend against the Bavarians and to serve as a toll way to the strategic Via Claudia trade route, which cut through the Alps connecting Italy and Germany. We visited two of the four parts- the fortified Klause toll booth on the valley floor and the oldest castle, Ehrenberg. As mentioned before, visiting any castle requires at least a 25-30 minute hike uphill, so we hoisted Isaiah into his traveling backpack and off we went…in the wrong direction…twice. When we finally found the path, which was as well marked as the tourist landmark signs in downtown Brussels, we stepped into the world of fairies, dragons, kings, queens, Gandalf and Frodo. We managed the climb through the woods in 25 minutes, 5 minutes short of the sign-posted arrival time and patted ourselves on the back for a job well done. The panorama from the castle was incredible, absolutely incredible; it was cloudy and dreary and it was still breath-taking. The majestic peaks met the green, lush valley floor, where a steeple and a smattering of red tile houses lay. I could have stayed up on that mountain top just taking in the view for hours; it was surreal. The picturs we took can’t really do the view justice- I guess you will all just have to visit Bavaria see for yourselves one day!

We headed back to our hotel, which has been run by the same family for ages, which explained why everything was locked up when we arrived…probably ran to the store for milk! Our room was HUGE- the only downside was the presence of a very scary photo of a person wearing a white carnival mask. Fortunately it wasn’t glued to the wall and I made Ben take it down every night before we went to bed.

Playing on the slide at our lunch break. Germany is great- rest stops with restaurants, play areas and super clean bathrooms every few kilometers...it almost felt like the US!

Views on our drive to Austria...amazing!!

Giving Merlin a High-Five

The toll house

Walking in the wrong direction.

Finally found the trail!

I didn't re-touch this picture at all, it was that green and awesome!

Beginning of the ruins

Almost there!

Crazy roots

Ben and Isaiah trying to pull our the sword in the stone.

Playing on the dragon

The castle ruins at the very top- we hiked up there!

I was going to try to blog our Germany vacation in one post, but after looking through our pics, I just wasn't able to pare down, so this will be coming in a few installments. We began our Germany adventure on Saturday, September 4^th only 1.5 hours late after an unprecedented 5 trips back to the apartment … The first leg of our trip took us to the Rhine River valley, a three hour drive from Brussels. On our way there, we had our first nerve racking experience on the famous German Autoban (no speed limit!) Our poor little Bora maxed out at 150kmp (about 95 mph), and we were getting smoked by loads of cars. We did manage to pass a slower moving police truck- my first time passing a police car! The Autoban was actually very safe; Germans really respect the posted speed limit (where they exist) and actually use their turn signals. Ben loved it! We also drove through many beautiful woods, fields, rolling hills lined with vineyards, pastures filled with cows or horses, and small towns. Southern Germany is incredibly beautiful! I didn’t really know what to expect, but everywhere we went was absolutely breathtaking.

View of the Rhine River from Marksburg Castle. In the Middle Ages, zillions of castles were built along the Rhine river to serve the many small kingdoms as “toll ways”. Passing ships would have a stop at each castle and pay the allotted toll or risk cannon fire or imprisonment. So, we drove along the Rhine too see and visit several of these castles.

Our first stop was Marksburg Castle. It was built in the mid 1200’s and has been lived in for over 700 years. Its position on the Rhine was such that is was never destroyed, so it is the most authentic medieval castle in Germany. We were extremely lucky because there was a medieval festival the day we were there, so the entire castle was filled with people as it would have been in the Middle Ages. A blacksmith was working in the stables (he was a REAL blacksmith that actually made armor and old style weapons- very cool), cooks in the kitchen were chopping potatoes and stirring soup, a brigade of soldiers was drilling in the courtyard, ladies of the court were weaving and painting…it was quite an event. Most of the participants spoke English and encouraged guests to ask questions about their trade/living.

The entry door, which originally was large enough for a horse and rider to pass through, was made smaller to decrease the chance of invasion on horseback.

Troop of soldier inside the castle.

Women making pasta and other food from scratch. There were other people walking around with bowls of food (i'm guessing from the kitchen!)

Castle kitchen.

Bedroom window seat. Ben and I have dreams of building our own house someday (maybe just in our dreams), and throughout this Germany trip (as a result of touring so many castles) we realized that our dream house was missing some very important elements. One such element is sweet window seats like the one pictured above- too cool!

Bedroom living quarters- this was the only part of the castle that was heated. Also, in those days, the queen wasn't aloud to criticize the kind in public, so she would wait to talk to him in their bed with the curtain closed so that no one but the kind would hear the criticism.

Working on weaving a picture

Inner Courtyard- Ben's back was hurting, so for most of this trip I got to carry Isaiah in the backpack.

Incredible countryside- this is what most of our Rhine River drive looked like. Fantastic!

From Marksburg Castle we drove to St. Goar to see the Rheinfels Castle ruins and town there. We had a take a nice little car ferry across the Rhine to arrive at St. Goar. This vacation was truly a vacation of castles, and the thing about castles is that they are usually build on top of steep hills or cliffs and the thing about visiting said castles is that you have to climb the steep hills or cliffs to get to the castles…needless to say, we did a LOT of climbing. Good ‘ol Rick Steves (our handy tour guide) recommended walking up to Rheinfels castle for a “pleasant” 15-minute hike through the hillside vineyards. Well, Rick Steves must not have had a stroller….it took a good 30 minutes and both Ben and I were sweating like crazy by the time we reached the castle. As we rounded the last bend, standing in front of us was a giant ghost of a castle and a parking lot…Why didn’t Rick Steves just say “skip the death climb, park in the parking lot” ?? In the end the climb was worth it. Rheinfels castle, built in 1245, was the biggest of the Rhine castles, but is now it ruins are only a fraction of the original size. It was neat to romp across walls and peak out windows and wonder what life must’ve been like in 1245.

Isaiah trying his hand at driving.

The view before taking a ferry to St. Goar. The castle in the background is owned by a Japanese man. He bought it for 4 million years ago to make it into a luxurious resort for his countrymen that happen to love vacationing in this valley. Unfortunately for him, the town refused to allow the updates to the castle because the castle was a historical monument. So, now it is empty...so sad!

The car ferry

St. Goar

Rheinfels Castle

Vineyards on the Rhine- view from our 30 minute hike

Inside the castle ruins. Below: Isaiah giving me hugs and kisses while Ben is trying to take a picture.

Another castle on the Rhine

Yet another castle on the Rhine.

Ben & My dinner at our hotel restaurant- delicious! German food was very good, but super heavy and filling! One night we just skipped dinner all together because we couldn't eat anymore!

The hike back to our car was a much easier and we arrived in record time and headed to our final destination for the evening: Bacharach. Bacharach’s castle is now a youth hostel, which we considered staying in, but after our hike to Rheinfels, we were glad to have a hotel at the bottom of the cliff with a view of the Rhine. Our hotel was really more like a bed and breakfast- we met the owners who absolutely loved Isaiah and enjoyed our fun “tower” room. The hotel was build into an old medieval fortress and so qualified for my life goal of “staying in a castle of the Rhine.” We had an amazing meal and retired to our room to put Isaiah to bed and begin our mad Canasta wars. As Isaiah had to be in bed between 7:30-8:00, we were also confined to the hotel room from that time forward, so we played a LOT of Canasta.